Messes & Masterpieces

What a super speedy (and chilly) three weeks it has been! This school year is flying by!

I cannot believe that we will be in the New Year next time I see your kiddos! We have so many exciting things coming this Spring time; more concerts, Field Day, the art show, and so much more! Cannot wait to celebrate and have fun with all of you!

Have a beautiful holiday break at home, stay safe, and have some fun! I'll miss you guys!

If you have any extra Christmas cards I would love to have one! They are my favorite thing ever! I'll even take them after the break! I always cover a big wall in our living room with cards and keep them up until Valentines Day!

It is not too late to order items with your student's artwork printed on them. The Art to Remember page will stay live until April! If you need a special gift for someone, you can order items and have them shipped directly to your home at any time!

The website is:

https://arttoremember.com/school/KN95QQ

RRISD Library Services organizes a Comic Con annually and it has an art contest component! Any and all entries for this event cannot be completed in art class. I am happy to look over and make suggestions on student entry, but cannot give ideas or edit artwork in any way!

Some kinder classrooms are still working on assembling their gorgeous sunflowers. These sunflowers will hopefully come home before the holidays and look beautiful on your fridge or wall! They are definitely worth hanging somewhere! If not, they'll be home in January.

We had lots of fun combining classes, playing with STEAM and STEM stations, painting, drawing, and so much more. I'm looking forward to the new year, clay projects, more painting, and so much more!

Firsties have continued putting finishing touches on their Hetaher Galler inspired Folk Art mugs. They turned out so good! I am so proud of these kiddos. They also did an amazing job or cutting out and putting their artwork together. That is tricker than it sounds when using wrinkled painted paper! They did a beautiful job!

We are going to create some fun Polar bear artwork to finish out the semester with weaving! This is one of my favorite projects, Bears in Sweaters! The cuteness is unreal! Cannot wait to show you the finished bears in January. This is our lead into our weaving unit and the projects just get cuter and cuter as we learn and grow!

Second grade has been so busy practicing for their Winter Performance. We have been combining classes in the gym, singing our hearts out, and learning our hand motions. It has been a lot of fun and a little wild. We got them onto the risers, organized and ready to perform for the campus and for their evening performance. As a mom to two second graders, I am so happy with how the concert turned out. The kids did such a great job!

While we haven't had too much time in the art room due to practices, we definitely managed to squeeze in some fun Friday time, some winter sketching, and lotsof fun!

Third grade is moving forward with Van Gogh sunflowers! We have started painting using a Van Gogh technique called Dip and Flip! To replicate his dashed style of painting, the students are using flat paintbrushes, dipping in one color of paint, flipping the brush and dipping in a second color. This allows the colors to blend together on their artwork and help create a more realistic coloring for their sunflowers. We are also painting without water. This stresses the kids out so much but is helping them to understand how colors blend, what colors can safely mix with each other to create new colors, and what turns into a messy brown.

This definitely comes with a learning curve, but the kids are really leaning into the difficulty and learning new tips, tricks, and techniques each time they walk into the art room.

After finishing up Tim Burton Spooky Portraits, fourth grade has moved right into our next big topic, Perspective. We will be creating amazing aquariums, while learning about perspective and how to utilize a ruler. We will be measuring and drawing precise lines on our papers, using the edge to draw straight lines, and so much more. It is always fun watching the kids discover the true use for a ruler. They aren't just lightsabers and drum sticks!

Drawing with perspective leads us right into our Optical Illusion unit so I just know January and February are going to be super fun in the art room.

Some of fifth grade has continued working on their Batik projects while the other half has moved on to the next big thing!

We are learning all about Modern artist, Jen Aranyi. We talked extensively about Art careers, including digital advertising and design, but also creators who sell their artwork on platforms such as instagram, etsy, or private online galleries. We learned about taking a hobby and turning it into so much more. It was a lot of fun hearing about the students passions and the different ideas they have for their own futures.

Jen Aranyi is a winter landscape artist who creates beautiful contrast in her artwork with bold black and white illustrations under gorgeous water colored galaxies. We looked at many different examples of her artwork and then recreated our own winter landscapes in a similar style.

This art wishlist is full of amazing items that Ms. Block and I would love to add to our classrooms. Any items purchased from the list will be shared with both rooms and all students. Thank you so much for helping support our art program!

I always try my best to have students wear aprons when working with paint, or other messy supplies in the art room, however accidents and messes do occur! Please see below for tips and tricks I use to get art stains out of all of my clothing (because I am the messiest of them all!)

This year, I am trying Artsonia in my art room. While Artsonia can be used as a fundraiser, I am only trying to use it as an online portfolio for student work. I know that student artwork does not always make it home safely, or at all! This way, you can look at your students work and it will stay compiled in their portfolio for their entire elementary art career!

Click the link below to search for your students hard work from this year so far. More pics to come as we complete projects!

Website: https://www.artsonia.com/connect/DH3SJHHH

School Code: DH3SJHHH